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Vengeance, Complicity and Criminal Law in Othello Richard H University of Chicago Law School Chicago Unbound Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers Working Papers 2015 Vengeance, Complicity and Criminal Law in Othello Richard H. McAdams Follow this and additional works at: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/ public_law_and_legal_theory Part of the Law Commons Chicago Unbound includes both works in progress and final versions of articles. Please be aware that a more recent version of this article may be available on Chicago Unbound, SSRN or elsewhere. Recommended Citation Richard H. McAdams, "Vengeance, Complicity and Criminal Law in Othello" (University of Chicago Public Law & Legal Theory Working Paper No. 504, 2015). This Working Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Working Papers at Chicago Unbound. It has been accepted for inclusion in Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers by an authorized administrator of Chicago Unbound. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CHICAGO PUBLIC LAW AND LEGAL THEORY WORKING PAPER NO. 504 VENGEANCE, COMPLICITY AND CRIMINAL LAW IN OTHELLO Richard H. McAdams THE LAW SCHOOL THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO February 2015 This paper can be downloaded without charge at the Public Law and Legal Theory Working Paper Series: http://www.law.uchicago.edu/academics/publiclaw/index.html and The Social Science Research Network Electronic Paper Collection. Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1893096 Shal<espeare AN o THE LAW A CONVERSATION AMONG DISCIPLINES AND PROFESSIONS Edited by BRADIN CORMACK, MARTHA C. NUSSBAUM, and RICHARD STRIER THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS Chicago and London Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1893096 RICHARD H. MCADAMS VENGEANCE, COMPLICITY, AND CRIMINAL LAW IN OTHELLO Criminal law offers a revealing frame for examining Othello, while the play offers in return some provocative thought experiments for examin­ ing law. The play encourages attention to law because, among other reasons, it favorably contrasts the deliberative elements oflegal process with the more arbitrary process of private vengeance. In act 5, Othello refuses to accord Des­ demona the very procedures that vindicated him ofa false charge in act r. Thus, · while some emphasize Shakespeare's criticism of law and lawyers, I contend in section 1 of this essay that Othello shows the virtue of legal processes by the tragedy its absence produces. For the lawyer, the play also poses a legal question: is Iago criminally liable for the murder of Desdemona? In section 2, I examine the rules of criminal complicity in place at the time Shakespeare wrote the play. Othello is a brilliant thought experiment for testing the limits ofElizabethan complicity law, espe­ cially for dealing with clever villains like Iago. In section 3, I use the criminal complicity rules set out in section 2 to explain two otherwise puzzling choices Iago makes: (1) his effort to dissuade Othello from using poison to kill Desde­ mona and (2) his lack of effort to be present at the killing. Of course, the law ofEngland would not have literally applied to the events in Othello, given that they occurred outside England among non-English subjects. But the audience for whom Shakespeare wrote would have interpreted the characters' actions in the light of their English understanding oflegal categories, which might have influenced how Shakespeare structured the action. At the least, a legal analysis shows us how legally trained members of the original audiences might have interpreted the play. Section 1 justifies the legal frame that I explore in sections 2 and 3. There is some tension in my first claiming that the play reveals the virtues of legal process and my later demonstrating that Iago stood to benefit, by accident or design, from certain limits or defects in the period rules of criminal law. Yet there is nothing unusual in finding such ambivalence in Shakespeare, whose ultimate views on important matters such as law are often hard to pin down. 1 The common point is that law has more to say about Othello (and vice versa) than has been previously understood. 121 1. Othello's Legal Frame: Public Process versus Private Revenge Various commentators assert that Shakespeare, like other educated nonlawyers of his day, knew a lot about law. 2 Besides having his own share of litigation, there is evidence that Shakespeare once lived near the Inns of Court, where he had friends and relatives and where he performed for collections of lawyers. 3 There was popular interest in law and high attendance at actual le­ gal proceedings, so the plays of the era frequently included trials and made reference to legal concepts.4 In addition, "lawyers made up a large part of the Bard's audiences wherever his plays were actually performed."5 Shakespeare thus used his legal "knowledge in his plays to create dramatic situations in areas of then current controversy."0 When Shakespeare scholars discuss the law in his plays, however, they usu­ ally neglect Othello. This omission is unjustified. Even a casual reading reveals that legal themes and terms pervade the text, and not just because we observe various crimes and accusation of crimes (discussed below). For example: Iago complains that Othello made Cassio his lieutenant. Three men went to Othello "[i]n personal suit to make me his lieutenant" (r.r.8),7 but Othello "Nonsuit[ed] my mediators" (r.r.15). A nonsuit is a legal judgment against a plaintiff for failing to establish a prima facie case. Roderigo says that if he is lying about Desdemona's having married Othello, Brabantio can "Let loose on me the justice of the state" (r.r.137). Desdemona promises to present Cassio's "suit" to Othello: "For thy solicitor shall rather die /Than give thy cause away" (3+27-28). English lawyers are either barristers or "solicitors." Brabantio and Othello speak oflegal "causes," as discussed below. Iago tells Othello he should not be obligated to reveal all his thoughts, arguing: Who has a breast so pure But some uncleanly apprehensions Keep leets and law-days and in session sit With meditations lawful? (3+141-44) Leets were "special courts, held by some lords of the manor once or twice a year."" Speaking to Emilia, Desdemona decides there is an innocent explanation for Othello's strange mood: Arraigning his unkindness with my soul, But now I find I had suborned the witness 122 RICHARD H. MCADAMS And he's indicted falsely. (3+153-55) When Iago recommends that Othello strangle Desdemona in "the bed she hath contaminated," Othello replies that the "justice ofit pleases" (4.r.205-6). When Othello is about to kill Desdemona, he comments that her "balmy breath ... dost almost persuade I Justice to break her sword" (5.2.16-17). Omitted from this list are the crucial events in act l, scene 3, where Othello answers Brabantio's charge that he has unlawfully taken Desdemona. The le­ gal framing here deserves sustained attention. Act l has the distinction that its events were created entirely by Shakespeare; they have no parallel in the acknowledged source for the play, Giovanni Cinthio's Un Capitano Moro, from Gli Hecatommithi (1565). 9 Samuel Johnson suggested that act l could be deleted without substantial loss,10 and, indeed, Verdi's opera Otelia omits it. Scholars have identified various purposes served by the act. 11 I wish to add an overlooked point: the opening act creates a legal baseline for evaluating subsequent events. In act 5, Othello seeks vengeance for what he believes to be Desdemona's adul­ tery. In killing Desdemona and seeking the death of Cassio, he denies to them some of the very elements ofa legal process from which he benefits in act land which would have almost certainly unmasked Iago's fragile deception. Thus, the play shows the need for law by depicting the tragic horror that can result from its absence. This reading requires a close comparison of act l, scene 3, and act 5, scene 2. THE ELEMENTS OF LEGAL PROCESS IN ACT l, SCENE 3 In act l, Brabantio believes that Othello has wronged him by taking his daughter Desdemona from his possession by force or fraud, a serious crime.12 As will be true when Othello believes in act 5 that Desdemona has wronged him, the source of the error is Iago. Directly and with Roderigo's assistance, Iago truthfully reports to Brabantio that his daughter is secretly away with Othello, but Iago adds sexual imagery to inflame Brabantio's anger (r.r). Later, Iago reports to Othello that Brabantio spoke in "provoking terms I Against your honour" (r.2.7-8), which made Iago contemplate a violent response (r.2.5). Iago also warns against relying on law, suggesting that Brabantio has so much political power that he will turn the governing council against Othello and "put upon" him "what restraint or grievance/The law" will allow (r.2.15- 17). Iago thus seeks to provoke a violent confrontation when the two men meet. The meeting occurs later in act r, scene 2. Brabantio, Roderigo, and some Vengeance, Complicity, and Criminal Law in Othello 123 officers meet Othello, Cassio, and Iago on the street, and each side draws swords. Iago tells Othello that Brabantio "comes to bad intent" (1. 56). Braban­ tio calls Othello a "thief" (11. 57, 62) and accuses him of" [a] bus [ing] [Desde­ mona's] delicate youth with drugs or minerals I That weakens motion" (ll. 73- 75). At this moment, on the cusp of violence, Brabantio could seek to avenge himself through private action or Othello might act preemptively as Iago has suggested. Instead, Othello discourages swordplay and Brabantio invokes a legal pro­ cess. Brabantio charges that Othello has acted "out ofwarrant" and commands his men to make an arrest: "Lay hold upon him; ifhe do resist/ Subdue him at his peril!" (11.
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